{"id":413204,"date":"2025-09-10T13:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T13:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/413204\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T13:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T13:16:11","slug":"plane-to-purgatory-how-trumps-deportation-program-shuttles-immigrants-into-lawless-limbo-us-immigration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/413204\/","title":{"rendered":"Plane to purgatory: how Trump\u2019s deportation program shuttles immigrants into lawless limbo | US immigration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/trump-administration\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Trump administration<\/a> is shuttling immigrants around the US in irregular and unprecedented ways, according to the findings of a Guardian investigation, effectively vanishing people into a \u201cpurgatory\u201d that denies them constitutionally-protected rights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A review of leaked flight records and passenger manifests from Global Crossing Airlines (GlobalX), the charter company that operates the majority of deportation flights for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), has provided a rare look at the winding journeys of more than 44,000 immigrants detained or deported by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The leaked data was provided to the Guardian, which has verified its authenticity. It encompasses about 100 days from late January to early May.<\/p>\n<p>Note: About 370 flight routes from 19 January 2025 to 2 May 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The Guardian reviewed GlobalX deportation flights as well as government detention data and interviewed attorneys, advocates, former officials and immigrants who have been through the system. The analysis has revealed that:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\n<li class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">GlobalX carried out more than 1,700 flights for Ice, the vast majority of them between domestic US airports. The airline transported nearly 1,000 children, including nearly 500 children under the age of 10, and 22 infants.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">For many immigrants, the flight paths were long, with multiple legs and layovers. Nearly 3,600 people were moved around repeatedly, forced to board five or more GlobalX flights.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Immigrants were also moved between detention facilities more than before. The average number of transfers per person has markedly increased in the past six months, and some detained immigrants have been moved as many as 10 or 20 times.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Detainees were moved around the US without notice, to locations far from their families, communities and legal counsel \u2013 leading to apparent violations of constitutional due process rights.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Along their journeys, immigrants say they were repeatedly kept in the dark about where they were going. Some say they were threatened by immigration agents with long-distance transfers and separation from their families if they did not accept voluntary deportation.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cIt just seems so fundamentally inhumane,\u201d said Sirine Shebaya, executive director of the National Immigration Project, a non-profit legal advocacy group. \u201cThe administration is using the system to make it as prohibitively cruel as it possibly can for the people going through.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Immigrants are being moved around via chartered flights operated by various private contractors, as well as by commercial airlines, buses and cars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But perhaps more so than any other transportation company, GlobalX, a Miami-based charter airline, has become a crucial tool of the US deportation machine \u2013 operating more than half of Ice deportation flights in 2024 and 2025. The company, which had initially marketed itself to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.columbiaspectator.com\/sports\/2025\/06\/25\/charter-airline-used-by-womens-basketball-linked-to-ice-deportation-flights\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sports teams and rock bands<\/a> seeking to travel in luxury, now earns <a href=\"https:\/\/ig.ft.com\/us-deportation-flights\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">most<\/a> of its revenue from its Ice contract.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">It was the airline the Trump administration tapped to move<strong> <\/strong>hundreds of Venezuelan men to El Salvador, despite a judicial order blocking the flight. It was also the operator of a now infamous deportation flight to Brazil during which multiple passengers fainted from heat exhaustion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">GlobalX did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The leaked GlobalX flight manifests provide one of the most detailed views available of the scale and scope of Trump\u2019s mass deportation scheme.<\/p>\n<p>Quick GuideHow the Guardian reported on leaked GlobalX flight data Show<\/p>\n<p>Infants sent overseas. People shuttled to different detention centers across the country five, 10, 15 times over a period of a few weeks. Lawyers desperate to find their clients. Detention centers exceed capacity as people wait for their deportation flights. A Guardian US investigation has revealed new details about the US government\u2019s chaotic mass deportation effort, including exclusive analysis of deportation flights during the first months of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p>Our reporting relied in part on details of over 1,700 flights and passenger lists encompassing more than 44,000 people that were anonymously leaked to the Guardian in May 2025, following a hack of Global Crossing, the charter airline that provides deportation flights across and outside the US. The hacking group Anonymous claimed to be responsible for the breach.<\/p>\n<p>The leaked information included passenger names, personally identifying information for those passengers, flight numbers, flight details, and other data for deportation flights that occurred in the first 100 days of Donald Trump\u2019s presidency, between January and May. The data was leaked to a number of media outlets, including the Guardian, unprompted.<\/p>\n<p>On 5 May, GlobalX confirmed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/1846084\/000095017025068004\/jetmf-20250505.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in a letter to the SEC <\/a>that it had learned of recent \u201cunauthorized activity within its computer networks and systems supporting portions of its business applications\u201d, which it determined was the result of a \u201ccybersecurity incident\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Reporters verified the authenticity of the data in a few different ways, using public and previously unreported deportations, as well as public flight info and file metadata.<\/p>\n<p>We verified the deportation journeys of every person interviewed for the series, like Andry Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez Romero, and checked to make sure that their journeys matched the data in the leaked manifests. Each person\u2019s recollection of their deportations match the origins, destinations and times listed in the leaked data.<\/p>\n<p>Reporters also located individuals whose names and stories were not public, and confirmed that the flight patterns described in the data were accurate. In one case, the details of which have never been made public, reporters looked up the flights of a person deported to Colombia after being apprehended at the northern border and matched the person by name and birthday within the GlobalX data. Reporters then verified each step of the individual\u2019s deportation journey in the leaked data.<\/p>\n<p>The Guardian also found other details that supported the authenticity of the data. An analysis of file metadata found that the files were created at various points in time between 3 May and 4 May, matching the approximate time frame GlobalX said its records were breached. We also verified that flights labeled with \u201cCANCEL\u201d or \u201cCANCELED\u201d in the messages field were canceled by comparing the tail numbers of flights in FlightAware with flights in our data. Flight details in our data match publicly available flight data.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the manifests and flight logs from GlobalX, the Guardian\u2019s reporting relied on additional data from the Deportation Data Project, a group of academics and lawyers using records requests to obtain and release anonymized immigration enforcement data to support our findings. The data was used to calculate daily populations at different detention facilities and to analyze the frequency of transfers between detention centers, which helped support other findings of the Guardian\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n<p>GlobalX did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The US has always moved immigrants around \u2013 most commonly, when a detention center reaches capacity, officials transfer detainees to facilities with more available beds. But the Trump administration is now shuffling immigrants around more frequently than before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In some cases, lawyers believe that the government is deliberately moving their clients to jurisdictions where immigration judges are less likely to grant asylum, or where legal injunctions blocking Trump immigration policies do not apply.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">DHS said that immigrants in custody are informed about their transfers and allowed to contact their families throughout. \u201cClaims that transfers of detainees are being \u2018weaponized\u2019 or \u2018hidden\u2019 are also categorically false,\u201d said Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary for public affairs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cDespite a historic number of injunctions, DHS is working rapidly and overtime to remove these aliens from detention centers to their final destination \u2013 home,\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cAll transfers are made in accordance with strict guidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.gov\/doclib\/detention-reform\/pdf\/hd-detainee-transfers.pdf\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">protocols<\/a> established in 2012, Ice is supposed to minimize long-distance transfers, and generally avoid moving detainees away from their immediate family and attorneys. The American Immigration Council and Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org\/litigation\/council-and-rmian-sue-ice-get-records-about-transfers-people-ice-custody\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">filed a lawsuit<\/a> to determine whether Ice is adhering to those policies, or whether transfer rules have been changed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">For immigrants in the system, these chaotic transfers can feel like a punishment, designed to wear people down, said Faisal Al-Juburi, head of external affairs at the legal aid group Ra\u00edces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cYou end up in a continuous state of unknown for an indefinite period of time,\u201d he said. \u201cFamilies are being put into a purgatorial state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>The plane made a stop, but he never knew where<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/apr\/01\/its-a-tradition-outrage-in-venezuela-as-us-deports-makeup-artist-for-religious-tattoos\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Andry Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez Romero<\/a>, one of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/aug\/04\/andry-jose-hernandez-romero-makeup-artist-venezuela\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">252 Venezuelan men<\/a> that the US expelled to El Salvador\u2019s most notorious megaprison, is still trying to make sense of why and how he ended up where he did.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He had come to the US southern border in August 2024, arriving just after his 31st birthday. After an initial screening, US officials determined that Hern\u00e1ndez Romero, a queer makeup artist who had faced discrimination in his home country, could have a valid claim to asylum. They placed him at a detention center near San Diego, California, while he awaited a hearing to decide his case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">About a month into the second Trump administration, everything started to go topsy turvy. At the crack of dawn on 8 March, an official told him to get ready \u2013 he was being moved. When he asked where he was going, an official responded: \u201cTo a much better place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He was given no specifics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He was first moved to Phoenix, and then loaded onto a GlobalX plane. Leaked records show that flight stopped \u2013 unbeknownst to his lawyers \u2013 in Phoenix, then Las Vegas, then Seattle and finally Harlingen, Texas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">None of this made sense. Hern\u00e1ndez Romero was due to appear in immigration court, in California, the following week.<\/p>\n<p><a data-name=\"placeholder\" href=\"https:\/\/interactive.guim.co.uk\/uploader\/embed\/2025\/09\/archive-zip\/giv-32554psf9xuyAUyRQ\/\" class=\"dcr-1eupayo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Map showing the path of Andry Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez Romero<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Lindsay Toczylowski, the co-founder of Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) and Hern\u00e1ndez Romero\u2019s lawyer, thought it was strange. She figured the government would fly him back to San Diego for his court appointment. But the appointment came, and Hern\u00e1ndez Romero wasn\u2019t there. \u201cThis is highly unusual, but again, at the time, Ice didn\u2019t seem to have any information,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She believed it was a bureaucratic mix-up. It was a Friday, and she assumed the government would reschedule his hearing for the upcoming Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">And yet, something seemed off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">That weekend, lawyers from ImmDef called the detention center to which Hern\u00e1ndez Romero had been transferred, and they were told he was no longer there. \u201cThey actually said to us it might be that he has just left for a little while and is coming back,\u201d said Toczylowski. \u201cWe had no idea what to make of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Hern\u00e1ndez Romero, meanwhile, came to suspect that the officials around him were lying. Many of his compatriots \u2013 others who had been shuttled to the same Texas detention center \u2013 were starting to get suspicious as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Jos\u00e9 Manuel Ramos Bastidas was worried he would be sent to the US naval base in Guant\u00e1namo Bay, Cuba \u2013 where the US government had already sent a group of Venezuelan men accused of criminal violations and gang membership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In February \u2013 after months of being detained at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia \u2013 Bastidas was transferred to an Ice facility in El Paso, Texas. From there, he called his wife, and told her to record his message, to share with the public should anything happen to him. \u201cThey detained me simply because of my tattoos. I am not a criminal. I have been here for 10 months,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is simply in case something happens to me \u2026 if they keep transferring me to another detention center.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A few weeks later, he was moved to a facility in Raymondville, Texas. Officials initially told him he would be going to Mexico. \u201cAt the end they said we were going to make a stop in Honduras and then go on to Venezuela,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He felt a moment of hope then \u2013 maybe, finally, he would see his two-year-old son, his wife, his mother.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">On board the plane \u2013 an Airbus A320 with 179 seats \u2013 staff told the shackled detainees not to open any of the shades. \u201cBut we thought, it\u2019s fine, we\u2019re going to Venezuela \u2013 that was the goal,\u201d he said. At least, that\u2019s what he and the others kept saying to each other, almost, in a way, to reassure one another.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The plane made a stop, but he never knew where.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">It refueled, took off again, and finally landed. \u201cWe opened the window [shades],<strong> <\/strong> and there we saw blue letters that said El Salvador. And we saw many, many police and soldiers, and tanks, helicopters, drones. That\u2019s when the terror began.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a data-name=\"placeholder\" href=\"https:\/\/interactive.guim.co.uk\/uploader\/embed\/2025\/09\/archive-zip\/giv-325546Tx1rlxFfp6P\/\" class=\"dcr-1eupayo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Map showing the path of Jos\u00e9 Manuel Ramos Bastidas<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">For the next four months, Hern\u00e1ndez Ramos, Ramos Bastidas and 250 other Venezuelan men were cut off from the outside world. The US government never released a full list of all the men it had condemned to Cecot \u2013 leaving dozens of families to guess at whether their loved ones had been sent there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThe government has never done something like this before, taking an asylum seeker and disappearing them \u2013 putting them on a plane to a third country,\u201d said Toczylowski. \u201cI had never seen that happen. So it wasn\u2019t something we were anticipating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Human rights and legal aid groups, in the meantime, were noticing it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of many of their other clients. \u201cIt really is very strange, you get someone who\u2019s picked up, they go to a hold cell, they stay there for seven days \u2013 which is completely outrageous. They then get moved to Florida. From there, they get taken to Arizona, then they end up in Texas,\u201d said Shebaya of the National Immigration Project. \u201cIt\u2019s like this wild goose chase, trying to follow where the person is and what the reasons are even for moving them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For lawyers, hours spent searching for clients<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">People in Ice detention have always been transferred between facilities, but transfers increased in frequency after Trump took office. A Guardian analysis of anonymized detention data from the Deportation Data Project, a group of academics and lawyers focused on immigration enforcement data, has found that the people who entered Ice detention between September 2023 and January 2025 \u2013 during the Biden administration \u2013 were transferred twice, on average. Immigrants that were booked into Ice detention since the start of the second Trump administration have been transferred more frequently, an average of three times per person.<\/p>\n<p><a data-name=\"placeholder\" href=\"https:\/\/interactive.guim.co.uk\/uploader\/embed\/2025\/09\/archive-zip\/giv-325547r2hMDjbjWKq\/\" class=\"dcr-1eupayo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chart showing an increase in the average number of transfers of a person in ice detention beginning after Trump\u2019s inauguration.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">It has become routine for immigration attorneys to spend hours each day trying to find their clients. Increasingly, they said, searches in Ice\u2019s online detainee locator system \u2013 which is meant to provide real-time updates on where migrants are being held \u2013 were proving futile.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Often, the system was wrong, or out of date.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">At one point, it logged that a number of people were being held in Washington DC \u2013 which does not have any Ice detention centers. \u201cAt some point we realized that some of them had been sent to Guantanamo Bay,\u201d Shebaya said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">During the militarized immigration raids in Los Angelesin June, lawyers from ImmDef and other groups compiled a list of about 1,200 people arrested. They have been unable to find about 400 of them, said Toczylowski.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWe have an entire team that is just looking every single day to try to locate people, so then we can communicate with them, offer them representation, and try and get them help,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">At times, attorneys said, the government has moved clients to states and locations where immigration judges tend to grant asylum at lower rates, or where petitions for a writ of habeas corpus challenging detentions are harder to obtain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In some cases, when the administration has tried to use unconventional or obscure procedures to expel immigrants, attorneys have filed legal complaints accusing DHS of moving people to judicial districts that were more likely to side with the Trump administration. In March, administration used a cold war-era provision to arrest pro-Palestine student activists \u2013 and swiftly shuttled them to detention centers in Louisiana and Texas, triggering a series of legal battles about which judges should oversee the students\u2019 cases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In April, a federal judge in the southern district of Texas banned the government from using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/our-work\/research-reports\/alien-enemies-act-explained?ms=gad_alien%20enemies%20act_725808081821_8626214133_170147454177&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=8626214133&amp;gbraid=0AAAAAC8kUVlLFg4LkGo9BVpjQI8guZ297&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw_fnFBhB0EiwAH_MfZofJt_tVlXM4-_XklGuFWXexci_O__cSnDhxQB_ik0k6EuwdT9CtpBoC5qoQAvD_BwE\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Alien Enemies Act<\/a>, an 18th century wartime law, to deport Venezuelans accused of gang membership. Ice soon moved two Venezuelan men from a south Texas detention center to a different one in northern Texas, where the ban didn\u2019t apply. Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union accused the DHS of \u201cshipping\u201d the men to a friendlier jurisdiction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Previously, it was not uncommon for immigrants who arrived at the southern border to be moved to detention centers all over the US. But in June and July, the number of Ice chartered flights between US cities increased two-fold compared with prior months, according to flight data compiled by Tom Cartwright, an immigration advocate who has been tracking Ice flights for nearly six years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThere is a lot of movement, and it really has accelerated significantly,\u201d Cartwright said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The DHS has moved to arrest record numbers of immigrants and keep them detained rather than releasing people on bond. In the aftermath of ramped up raids in cities across the US, immigration officials are scrambling to find space in the detention system to hold arrestees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say how much of that is due to capacity issues at detention centers, and how much of that is for other reasons. But I don\u2019t think the numbers lie at all,\u201d Cartwright said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A \u2018particularly cruel\u2019 fate <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">For immigrants inside the system \u2013 the chaos is punishing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">When LW, a 37-year-old mother who came to the US with her 10-year-old son in April seeking asylum, immigration agents told her she must either return to China with her kid \u2013 or the government would separate them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She tried to explain to border patrol agents in San Diego that she had faced political persecution back home, that both she and her son could be killed if they ever went back. It was to no avail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She and her son spent about a week at a Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) facility, sleeping on a thin mattress on the floor. They weren\u2019t able to make any calls. \u201cNo contact with the outside world. I was still not able to let my boyfriend know that we were alive,\u201d she said in a sworn declaration in her immigration case, shared with her permission by her lawyers at Ra\u00edces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Eventually, they presented her with deportation documents. She refused to sign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Two days later, at about 4am, LW said, agents forced her and her son into an unmarked blue car. They were driven to the airport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cAccording to them, if I did not get on this plane, I would have to be taken on a military aircraft back to China,\u201d she said. \u201cMy heart dropped.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She was frantic \u2013 using all the English she could muster to plead her case. She said they grabbed both of her arms and began pulling her toward the terminal. . \u201cDesperate and terrified of what might happen, I dropped to the ground ,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Eventually, she said, after conferring among themselves, the agents loaded LW and her son back into the blue car. By then, she said, both were crying \u2013 and the agents told them to shut up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Two days later, LW and her son were moved to a family detention center in Dilley, Texas \u2013 where they were able to connect with lawyers at Ra\u00edces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Two weeks after that, LW disappeared from Ice\u2019s online detainee locator system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Her lawyers scrambled to piece together what had happened. LW had been moved to an Ice detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, while her son was sent to a shelter for unaccompanied minors, managed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The agents told her the only way she could see her son again was if she returned to China. \u201cWe cannot return to China. My life and my son\u2019s life will be at risk,\u201d LW said. \u201cIt took great sacrifices and risk to even be able to escape and get here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Before her lawyers were able to meet with her in New Jersey, LW was moved again \u2013 to El Paso, Texas. And then again, to Chaparral, New Mexico. It took LW\u2019s legal team at Ra\u00edces 11 weeks to make contact with her. She and her son have now been separated for 16 weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cBased upon everything that we can see, this is punishment\u2026 a punishment for not acquiescing,\u201d said Al-Juburi of Raices. \u201cThe system is designed to make you, as an immigrant, give up, to make you more likely to self deport.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">DHS defended current practices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cParents, who are in the US illegally, can take control of their departure. Through the [Customs and Border Control] Home App, the Trump administration is giving parents illegally in the country a chance to take full control of their departure and self-deport, with the potential ability to return the legal, right way and come back to live the American dream,\u201d said McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary of public affairs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She added: \u201cRather than separate families, Ice asks parents if they want to be removed with their children or if the child should be placed with someone safe the parent designates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Immigration attorneys across the US have reported that clients are given ultimatums, rather than a real choice. During the LA raids, at least four pregnant women were picked up and transferred to detention centers in Florida, said Toczylowski of ImmDef.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Another of her clients was arrested in LA, in front of his eight-year-old son and flown, almost immediately afterwards, to Tacoma, Washington. \u201cI saw his son crying and devastated,\u201d she said. The family has remained separated since then.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cIt seems the goal is to make people desperate enough so they decide not to fight their case, so they decide that the quickest way to see their other children or make sure they don\u2019t have to deliver their babies in shackles is to accept a voluntary deportation,\u201d said Tocylowski. \u201cIt is particularly cruel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Additional reporting by Raima Amjad<\/p>\n<p><strong>Contributors<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Graphics: Andrew Witherspoon<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Illustrations: Angelica Alzona<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Visuals editing: Marcus Peabody<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Copy editor: Rusha Haljuci<\/p>\n<p>Quick GuideContact us about this storyShow<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1757510171_566_4000.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"dcr-1vs4o7z\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.<\/p>\n<p>If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Secure Messaging in the Guardian app<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. 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Select \u2018Secure Messaging\u2019. <\/p>\n<p><strong>SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you can safely use the tor network without being observed or monitored you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/securedrop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SecureDrop platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, our guide at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tips\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">theguardian.com\/tips<\/a>\u00a0lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Illustration: Guardian Design \/ Rich Cousins<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration is shuttling immigrants around the US in irregular and unprecedented ways, according to the findings&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-413204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115180193955678184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}